


The Taste of Victory

by Languid_Victorian_Poetess



Category: High School Story (Visual Novel)
Genre: Choices: Stories You Play - Freeform, Developing Relationship, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Homecoming, I'm bad at tags, they're not dating but they're not pining either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-19 10:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29749197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Languid_Victorian_Poetess/pseuds/Languid_Victorian_Poetess
Summary: After a Berry victory at homecoming, Michael and Liv steal a moment alone.
Relationships: Michael Harrison/Main Character (High School Story: Original Trilogy)





	The Taste of Victory

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first time posting like actual fan fiction instead of just fics about my own characters! I really hope you like this? I've actually had this written for a while, I'm just nervous about posting real fan fiction. Apologies in advance, I know I write like someone out of the 19th century.
> 
> Anyway, I wanted my MC to have a different first kiss than the options in the book so here we are. It also may or may not take inspiration from a Disney movie, shoutout to anyone that picks up on it and can name the movie. Anyway, please enjoy my small fluffy nonsense!

The screams crashed onto Liv’s shoulders like a tidal wave. A sea of red clambered to their feet, stomps and shrieks in equal volume. The noise was deafening and Liv could feel the field reverberate beneath her. “TIGERS!!!!!!” The bleachers roared. “TIGERS, GO TIGERS!!!” The scoreboard blared with its own cacophony to announce the end of the game and proudly displayed their winning numbers. One whole point more than Hearst. 

“We did it!” Emma cheered and then Liv was swept up in the team’s celebration. It was a whirlpool of limbs and red, helmets clanking, the sweat and adrenaline as a taste in the air. The whoops and words were lost in the pure noise. The team hoisted Julian and Michael onto their shoulders with another crow of victory. Liv lifted her own arms to hold them up, but Michael and Julian seemed to have something different in mind.

“We wouldn’t have won without you!” Julian laughed. “You really kept us together.”

“Yeah, come on Liv, you deserve this!” Michael agreed and stretched out his hand towards her.

Before she could even consider refusing, this wasn’t her moment after all it belonged to all of them, Frank had hoisted her onto his shoulders and the team was shouting her name. Her other friends in the stands picked it up and before she knew it, she was surfing the crowd that cheered her name in chorus with the shouts of “Tigers!” and “Berry!”

Hearst gathered sullenly on the other side of the field while the shrieks still rang out from the Berry section. The emerald of their uniforms seemed to blend into the turf as the football team slouched off to the lockers. The green guests fought their way through the celebration of red, which was finally beginning to die down as the Hearst kids made their way to the buses dejectedly.

At last, the team set down Michael, Julian, and Liv, only to rush over to their coach and drench him with the water from the cooler. Their peals of laughter joined the fading cheers as friends embraced and loudly discussed the game and Hearst’s grand defeat. It was the excitement for the soon to come celebrations, mostly post Homecoming game parties, that pulled them all to the locker room to shower and change.

Still hollering, they raced through the tunnel, a wave of red and bouncing shouts that carried back onto the emptying fields. Liv found herself at the back of the pack, the exhaustion of the last few hours finally catching up and she slowed her pace to let the rest go on ahead. The lockers slammed shut a few feet ahead of her, the yells from inside bringing a smile to her face.

“Liv!” A familiar voice called from behind and she turned to see Michael jogging towards her. “You forgot your helmet.” The adrenaline that had begun to fade came back in a single heartbeat as she met his grey eyes with her brown ones. Her helmet felt awkwardly placed between them as he held it out to her. She closed the distance in a few easy steps, aware of her breathing that had become a jumbled mess in her throat. Was the tunnel getting smaller? It had gone from a wide hallway to the space of a crowded closet, though that brought up its own memories. Tension, or maybe it was just her own nerves, seemed to interfere and her smile no longer felt carefree but anticipatory. Was something about to happen?

She was beginning to think that Michael felt the same. His eyes never left hers and his smile had gone soft around the edges rather than the simple adrenaline pumped exhilaration. She accepted the helmet, their fingers brushing as she took it from him, intending to tuck it under her arm. She never made it that far.

In the short span of seconds after their fingers brushed, Liv found herself with her back against the wall, Michael hovering a few precious inches away, his hands on either side of her against the tunnel. The breath in her throat was not jumbled but rather trapped, air unable to leave her lungs, afraid she might disrupt the moment on the horizon. His eyes roved down and then settled on her lips. The red of his football uniform only highlighted the pink of his own mouth. She was drawn to it and Liv, probably recklessly, moved to close the little distance that was between them.

Replaying that moment again and again in her head later that night, Liv couldn’t be sure who made the final move. Only that her helmet slipped from her grasp as their lips met in a clash of victory and adrenaline, the best kind of celebration she could ask for. It was like the last touchdown or racing across the field, a kind of freedom achieved through struggle and sweat. It was hard in the best way, a kind of devouring between them in a lightless tunnel, all scraping teeth and nipped lips. His arms remained on either side of her head, his whole body taunt and barely brushing hers, the soft scrape of fabric as they shifted to deepen the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer until he practically had her pinned against the wall. One of her hands ravaged through his hair while the other remained on his neck to tug him incessantly closer. 

The heat between them was unbearable, the uniforms clunky, the sweat trapping her clothes to her body, ten thousand ways this moment should have been imperfect and yet somehow it was anything but. The grime only made it feel more like a victory and when her nails lightly raked his scalp, he groaned into her mouth. The seconds stretched into minutes into hours until the moment felt eternally inevitable. Finally breathless, they broke apart, his forehead against hers, their bodies so, so close. His breaths mingled with hers in a different type of intimacy and just maybe they would have kissed again, except a loud shout came from the locker room.

He moved back and ran a hand through his hair to tame it. “Heh. We should go in there. Before they realize we’re uh... not there,” Michael said. His voice had a husky quality to it, the sign of not quite recovery from their moment.

“Sure.” Liv agreed, sticking with one word that she was certain wouldn’t betray her pounding heart or desire to kiss him again and screw the team and their opinions. Instead, she stooped down and tucked her helmet under her arm. When she straightened, he was holding the door open to the locker room and waiting for her.

With a deep breath to steady herself, Liv crossed the remaining few feet to the entrance, hesitating only for a moment. “Michael,” she began and then offered him a smirk. “I’m really looking forward to homecoming with you tomorrow.”

“Me too, Jones,” he replied with a smirk of his own. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If people are interested I might try writing some other Choices fics, we'll see. I'm a particular sucker for angst so don't be surprised if this is the only fluff piece I post for a while. Thank you again to anyone who reads this, every hit makes my day!


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